Raquel Sánchez (Gavà , 1975) has just closed the first state housing law after three years of negotiations. He claims that it was the “great pending subject” of the central government. He attends La Vanguardia on the eve of approving, in the Council of Ministers, the mobilization of almost 50,000 Sareb homes for social rent, and defends, in front of the PP, the real estate industry and investment funds, which is “a good †rule.
We are already on the threshold of a new electoral cycle that will be decisive, with the municipal and regional elections in May and the general elections in December. And the Central Government places the problem of access to decent housing as a major political priority.
The approval of the Housing law is a milestone in the history of this country. It is the first law in the history of democracy that aims to ensure that what the Constitution states, the right to decent and affordable housing, is a reality. Until now this was impossible for a majority of families and young people in our country. With this law, which provides for many measures, we aim to ensure the exercise of this right. In addition, with measures such as the one approved today to mobilize 50,000 Sareb homes, we continue to consolidate and expand the public housing stock, which is very scarce, and not because no public housing had been built, but because a once built, due to the land liberalization policies of the PP and to obey other interests, the sale of public housing at a low price was facilitated. In this mandate, we have multiplied the budget allocated to housing eightfold, from 425 million euros allocated by the PP to almost 3,500 million. We are developing housing through the public entity Sepes and we are establishing the bases and foundations with the law so that we can make possible the establishment of a much-needed public park.
Sareb currently has around 47,000 homes in its portfolio. How will the model be configured and when will they be available for social rent?
Since we assumed public control of Sareb, 14,000 social rental contracts with vulnerable families have been regularized in recent months. There is also a package of 21,000 homes that will be made available to the autonomous communities and councils for social rent. And, on the other hand, it is planned to mobilize the land owned by Sareb so that public housing can be built there. The maturing terms will be different; there will be different speeds.
At what stage are the 21,000 homes that will be made available to communities and councils?
Some are already ready to be inhabited and others need some procedure or some rehabilitation work. There are different degrees. The current state housing plan foresees aid programs for communities and councils so that they can obtain Sareb housing and undertake renovation works if the housing needs it.
Where are the houses located?
Most of them are located in Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Andalusia, communities where there is a problem of access to housing and where there are tense areas.
Is there a large enough housing stock in the city center to cover part of the demand for social rent?
Sareb has homes where she has them. But there are many other measures that have been articulated, for example through the affordable rent plan, which envisages building more than 100,000 homes that we can allocate to affordable rent, the state housing plan or the recovery plan funds , with 1,000 million euros to build up to 20,000 social rental homes. In Madrid, the Campamento operation will be very important, on Defense grounds.
The president of the central government set the goal of reaching a 20% public housing stock. In what period can it be achieved?
The Housing Law establishes a horizon of being able to reach this 20% of social housing in stressed areas in the next 20 years. Currently, it is barely 2.5% or 3%. The aim is to assimilate to countries around us, about 9%, in the medium and long term. We need time, but the bases are being established, and we have the elements, because we are making all the resources available to the public administrations, and we are agreeing with the private sector and third sector entities. We have changed and laid the foundations for a new housing paradigm in our country, which was a pending subject.
Why has it taken so long to get these plans off the ground, given that building public housing takes time?
It didn’t take us long. Since we began this mandate, we have been mobilizing and building public housing. I want to remind you again of the construction plan for 100,000 affordable rental homes, of which we have already activated around 60%. With the banks, we have also set up a social fund with 11,000 homes available to families and vulnerable groups.
Why do you think that limiting rents and intervening prices in stressed areas will be an effective measure? He has received a lot of criticism from the PP.
The PP has criticized this law since before knowing its content. But I also don’t think that the PP is the most suitable for giving classes on housing policies. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, during the ten years he governed Galicia, only made 3,000 public housing units available to citizens, when in the previous decade 27,000 public housing units had been built in Galicia. The contrast speaks for itself. Whenever possible, the PP has favored real estate funds and has practiced the policy of selling the public housing stock to vulture funds. Now he says that the Housing bill will do nothing, but he also said that labor reform would destroy jobs and that pension reform would put the sustainability of the system at risk, and he predicted the economic apocalypse for our country . I predict little future for the PP as a diviner of what will happen. The objective of the Housing law is not solely and exclusively to contain the disproportionate increases in the price of rent in stressed areas, but we are also introducing tax benefits so that the small owner can afford to pay an affordable rent. In other words, incentives that will make what you save or the profit you get in the rent be higher than the profit you can get by increasing the rent price. They are balanced measures.
The union criticizes the price limit, and its president, Joan Clos, says it is not progressive. Do you consider it progressive to limit prices?
Yes, sure. In addition, this law has had the support of the progressive forces of this Government. It will be a measure that will help price increases do not become rampant and out of control, as this drives most people out of being able to access and afford rent. Therefore, yes, I think it is progressive to approve measures that favor the most vulnerable, the young, those whom the market has expelled from access to housing.
Why haven’t they introduced some kind of regulation of tourist rentals in the Housing law?
Because it is a matter whose regulation is not the responsibility of this ministry, but of the autonomous communities and also of the town councils, which, in their municipal ordinances, must regulate and declare the uses that housing can have. That is why it is not subject to the law. Each administration must carry out the responsibilities assigned to it.
What will the index look like for price updates from 2025?
It will be a new index. We have established the maximum update for this year at 2%, and at 3% for 2024. The INE will be in charge of compiling this index and determining the methodology to be able to define an index that above all must respond much better to the behavior of the real estate market. It must ensure that there are no excessive increases in rents, as has happened recently.
